1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to trenched transistors (both FET and bipolar) and more specifically to a trenched DMOS transistor defined by intersecting trenches formed so as to have no channel in the transistor cell corner areas as defined by two intersecting trenches, so as to eliminate punch-through.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The well known DMOS transistors are a type of MOSFET using diffusions to form the active transistor regions. It is known to form such transistors having a trench in the substrate, the trench being lined with a thin oxide layer and filled with a conductive polysilicon to form the transistor gate structure. These transistors are typically used for power applications such as high current switching applications.
Prior art trenched DMOS transistors disadvantageously require a large number of masking steps to define the various transistor regions, including the tubs for the active transistor regions, the body region, the source region, and the body contact regions, each of which are separate diffusions. Additional masking steps define the oxide layers and polysilicon portions of the transistor. Each additional masking step requires mask alignment, resulting in the possibility of alignment error, undesirably reducing yield. Additionally, the many process steps (which include temperature cycles) result in diffusion of certain of the implanted ions, thus undesirably altering the lateral extent and/or depth of the diffused regions.
Such transistors are also deficient in that the prior art etching processes for the trench damage the trench sidewalls, affecting the sidewall oxide thickness and thus adversely affecting transistor performance.
In the prior art typical trenched transistor, another significant problem is punch-through. Punch-through is well known as an undesirable gate-controllable phenomena whereby a channel of the transistor is depleted. Punch-through typically occurs at the channel region of the transistor in the form of a non-destructive leakage current, prior to avalanche breakdown. Punch-through is especially a problem with trenched DMOS transistors which tend to break down electrically at the sharp corners where two trenches intersect, as is typically the case with closed cell transistors.
Punch-through tends to occur at corners because 1) at the corners, the two dimensional diffusion results in the presence of less source dopant; and 2) the electric field at the corners is stronger due to the corner curvature.